Archive for the ‘Kittens’ Category

So, who could resist her? If you can, then this probably isn’t the place for you to come to stay! She is very good but she is a Jack Russell and she is an 18 week old puppy!

I have had her for 4 weeks and she is house-trained, will “sit” and come back when I call her – most of the time. Oh, her name is Jelly Bean. Many friends offered many suggestions for names, my daughter asked for suggestions on facebook, but in the end I decided to wait to see what actually ‘fitted’ her and on the 2-hr drive back from North Oxfordshire, my friend and I decided she was definitely a jumping Jelly Bean.

Poor Lilli was somewhat horrified and went on hunger strike for 2 days. But she soon realised Jelly was not going to go away so she had better make the best of it. It was helped a little by the fact that she was considerably bigger than Jelly – until it was that Jelly realised just how much fun it is to chase her. Poor Lilli – she now has several escape routes in the garden but I notice that she always seems to be outside now, far more than before, and definitely if Jelly is outside. So I think she is ok.

Lilli is not amused

Getting to know you

Only time will tell I suppose but, to add to the general mayhem, I have another kitten due to arrive at the end of August! I had thought, when I booked it, that it would be company for Lilli, since she lost her sister, but then Jelly came along. So who knows how it will all work out now.

But, as I said before, if you are not an animal lover, best to pick a different b&b! However, if you like to be greeted enthusiastically on arrival, and like a cat singing to you thru breakfast, this is the place for you! I look forward to meeting you.

I am terribly sorry to have to report that dear, sweet little Piccal was hit by a car on Wednesday night. She was microchipped so when the vets picked her up (someone kindly reported it to them), they were able to contact me the next morning. I went to see her and, bless her, she was in a horrible state but as soon as I stroked her she set up her usual loud purring. It was heartbreaking. She was just so badly injured that I decided that the kindest thing was to let her go, and not even try to put her through months of treatment.

Lilli seemed very lost all day, looking out for her sister every time there was a little noise and I was worried that she would pine dreadfully. But today, as I write, she has been eating very well (she was always the glutton!), and although she doesn’t seem to feel safe outside, she does seem to be coping fine. Let’s just hope it continues, and she keeps up her inclination to stay more indoors than out.

Little Piccal was the adventuress from the day they arrived. She was the one locked in my neighbour’s garage all night and she, of course, was the one bitten by the neighbour’s cat. A short, and I hope, happy little life, for a joyful little pussy.

The spaying went fine on both cats but they came home with those horrid plastic ‘lampshade’ collars round their heads (to stop them licking their wounds of course). I watched in sympathy as they banged into chair legs, door frames etc, till finally they got a bit more proficient at moving around. So much for the vets telling me to stop them jumping! – within an hour of being home they were play-fighting and leaping around all over the place (albeit crashing into things).

I lasted out with the collars for 2 days and then couldn’t bear to see them so hating them any more, so I took them off and just prayed they wouldn’t try to rip the stitches out. I was in luck – they didn’t seem to touch them at all. So …… a week later, we returned to the vet and the stitches came out and all was pronounced to be well. I thought that was going to be the end of the vet run for a while, but I was wrong.

Just two days later, poor little Piccal, the smaller of the two, got jumped by another big bruiser who had only recently been adopted by my next door neighbours (as I have subsequently learnt, because it didn’t get on with the other 4 cats it lived with over the road!) It gave Piccal a really bad bite right at the base of her tail and she came in covered from head to toe in muck and looking extremely sorry for herself. I cleaned her up and for the next week I and a family guest administered to her wound and we hoped we had it under control. But no. Cat bites are notoriously toxic and this one proved no different. We ended up with 3 further trips to the vet, 2 courses of antibiotics, a bottle of anti-inflamatory and a very hurty and scared little pussy!

Finally, she does seem to have recovered and the lump on her tail gone and for the first time in nearly 4 weeks she no longer squawks if I stroke her tail. Both cats are now very wary of going out and I am keeping them in at night. My neighbours have put a collar with a bell on on their cat so hopefully it will not be able to sneak up on mine unannounced! We can only hope.

On Thursday night I shut the kitties in the house as they were due for neutering operations on Friday morning. Imagine my horror when I came down in the morning and found the most enormous white cat I have ever seen, sitting on the window sill looking at me. I realised that although I had fixed the cat flap so mine couldn’t get out, I had completely forgotten to fix it so no other cat could get in! Well, poor Lilli was cowering in a corner, whilst Piccal was nowhere to be found! I opened the door to let the other cat out, hoping I shouted enough to frighten it into not coming back, and then looked for Piccal. Surprisingly, she turned up OUTSIDE – she must have got her claw under the locked cat flap and managed to flick it open.

So then, to add insult to injury, I had to bundle both kittens into cat boxes and take them off to the vet’s for their operations.

Later ……..

I picked them up at 5pm and they seemed to be fine – but – they had horrid plastic collars on to stop them getting to their wounds. They were not amused! Anyway, they seemed fine during the evening. Not dozy as I had expected, and once they had half mastered walking round without knocking into everything with those wretched collars, they even managed a game or two. Of course I kept them locked in when I went to bed, hoping that they would have a better day tomorrow!!

When I came to Lea House I had 2 elderly dogs and 2 elderly cats. My little terrier mutt lasted the longest but sadly she was put down last August. I was left animal-less and for a short time, quite enjoyed the freedom, but it was strange to come down in the morning and not have a “furry friend” to greet me. So I started looking for a pair of ginger cats, or kittens, to replace my last ones. I had no idea it was going to prove quite so difficult to find any. Are ginger cats not being bred anymore? After 6 months of fruitless searching, including all the animal shelters around, I finally found 2 little tortoiseshell girls and fell in love!

When I first saw them

So I brought them home and they looked very little and lost for a while ….

Just arrived home

But already they are very settled in …..

Snoozing on the sofa

So, after about 10 days I decided to let them see the outside world …..

Venturing out for the first time

By now they are very confident and, sad to say, have caught their first bird – the downside of having cats I am afraid.

My guests have found them very entertaining already – chasing each other up and down the trees and generally playing the fool. I shall stop now, hopefully before I have become too boring on the subject, but expect updates soon!!